December 02, 2008

REL to up capacity of Sasan ultra mega plant

BS reported that Reliance Power Limited, that bagged the 4,000 MW ultra mega power plant in Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, has decided to increase the capacity of the pithead coal based plant beyond 4,000 MW.

A senior executive of Reliance Power Limited said that “We have taken a decision in principle to increase the capacity of the Sasan plant beyond 4,000 MW. We are yet to decide to what level.”

The decision follows a recent resolution by the empowered group of ministers to allow promoters of ultra mega power projects to enhance the capacity beyond 4,000 MW and sell the additional power at the best price possible. It would be advantageous for the owners of the plants because they would make use of the existing infrastructure like coal, land and other facilities to generate the extra power at a competitive cost and sell it at a higher price.

Reliance Power Limited has promised to supply power from the INR 20,000 crore Sasan project at a levelised tariff of INR 1.196 per unit for 25 years. But it can sell the additional power at a higher cost.

The government has initiated the process of building 4,000 MW ultra mega power projects under the public private partnership route to plug India’s ever increasing energy deficit. 2 projects of 4,000 MW each have already been taken up for implementation by TATA Power in Mundra in Gujarat and Reliance Power in Sasan, Madhya Pradesh and 2 more projects, Tilaiya and Krishnapatnam, are slated to be handed over to the developers before March 2008. Another 6 ultra mega projects are in the pipeline.